Wilkie Decker Funeral

Jeremy Robinson

Funeral • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Handout

Song- Wind Beneath My Wings

Scars in Heaven

I read these words in this very place nearly 4 years ago as Wilkie sat in a recliner, broken in his body by a car wreck, but broken in his heart by the loss of his beloved wife.

Lamentations 3:22–25 ESV

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

These words were true about our Lord 4 years ago and they are true today.

His love for His children never runs out.

His mercy toward us is new every morning.

His faithfulness is great.

So this afternoon, as we gather to remember, honor, celebrate and mourn our father, brother, grandfather, and friend, may the Lord be our portion and our Hope, for He is GOOD to those who seek him.

PRAYER -

Song- Eternity

Obituary Reading

James Wilkie Decker, 80, of Beaver Dam died Thursday, September 2, 2021 at his home. Wilkie was born in McHenry to the late W.L.,Sr. and Martha Shoulders Decker. Wilkie worked at Sinclair Surface Mine and was also a carpenter. He was a member of East Hartford Baptist Church and UMWA. He loved to coach, to hunt, to fish, woodworking, reading and most of all spending time with his grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife Ethel Decker, 2 brothers, W.L. Decker, Jr. and Mike Decker.

Survivors include 3 sons-Jeff (Lisa) Decker, Ken (Jessica) Decker, Paul (Misty) Decker; 4 brothers-Dannie (Judy) Decker , Fonzo (Shelia) Decker, Rod (Tina) Decker, Chet (Teresa) Decker; 2 sisters-Sissy (Kenny) Segers, Beanie (David) Roop; 2 sisters-in-law, Rita Decker and Charlotte Decker; 8 Grandchildren-Kian Drake, Dashia Minogue, Kendra (Decker) Hunt, Nate, Kenlee, Elijah, and Ella Decker.

Live Song- Give Me Jesus

Message

One of the first times I met Wilkie was at Jack Calloway’s life group.

He and Ethel sat right across from me and we were talking and getting to know each other.

I asked Wilkie something, I don’t even remember what it was, but he didn’t hear me.

So Ethel gave him a firm nudge and said something like “Wilkie, he’s talking to you!”

It didn’t take long to know how kind-hearted a man Wilkie was and how much he needed Ethel to make sure he could hear the preacher when he was talking to him.

It wasn’t but a few months later when I got the call about the wreck and that Ethel was being rushed to Louisville and shortly after the call that she had died.

I didn’t know Wilkie very well at that point, but I got to witness the sadness of a husband who deeply loved his wife and was forced to say goodbye so quickly.

I had breakfast with Wilkie a several months after Ethel’s death. At Hardee’s, and it ended up almost being a lunch when we were done talking.

We talked about a lot of things: his growing up years, his kids and grandkids, Ethel (of course), his love of sports and building, and his love for the Lord.

My bible reading plan this week had us reading John 14 and when I read those first 6 verses on Tuesday night I knew God was directing me to this passage for today.

John 14:1–6 CSB

1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.” 5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

“Don’t let your heart be troubled.” One thing I quickly learned about Wilkie is that he didn’t let a whole lot of things trouble his heart.

I got a copy of Ella’s letter she wrote a few years back about why Wilkie should be the AARP grandparent of the year. Her first point was “because he is strong.”

Most of us here could attest to Wilkie’s strength, whether it is his brothers and sisters remembering how hard he worked as the oldest brother to take care of his family when they were kids.

Or his sons as they watched their dad work hard in the mines, building houses, or coaching their teams.

Or it if what how he showed strength the last 4 years as he fought the effects of the car wreck and the pain of losing Ethel.

He definitely was strong.

Ella’s second point was “He is funny.”

Wilkie was a cheerful, easy-going guy who loved to laugh.

Ella shared how he loved to sing and make up songs and how she was able to get him to dance.

His humor, his cheerfulness, and his strength made him someone most everyone loved to be around and many wanted to be like.

But Ella’s last reason why Wilkie should be the grandparent of the year is the one that made the others possible and powerful.

Because “He puts Christ first.”

This really is the reason why John 14:1 describes Wilkie so well.

Jesus is talking to his disciples when he tells them to not let their hearts be troubled.

There hearts are troubled because He has just told them that He is going away.

This conversation happens the day before Jesus is nailed to a cross and dies for the sins of those who would trust in Him.

The disciples are troubled because the one they had grown to love and had placed so much hope in was telling them He was leaving.

But don’t take Jesus’s words the wrong way.

They are the empty platitudes we often hear people say in hard times.

“Oh don’t worry, things will get better.”

"Keep you chin up.”

“Time will heal.”

No Jesus roots his words in an imperative/a command.

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled, instead BELIEVE in GOD and ME.”

Makes a lot of sense why Wilkie didn’t let much trouble his heart doesn’t it.

He believed in God and he trusted in Christ.

Jesus then give 3 reasons why they/we should not be troubled, and you will see Wilkie right in the middle of these reasons.

1) There is room in God’s house for anyone who believes.

Get that picture in your head. God has a huge house in heaven and room enough for anyone who would trust in Him.

He will never run out of rooms.

There was a worry in the disciples that once Jesus left they would have no place to go, no hope left in their life.

Jesus’s assurance here is that His departure is good news for them.

There is a reason for hope that goes beyond the things of this world.

We live in a world that continually offers us temporary securities and comforts, a world that keeps our eyes fixed on the things right in front of us, that distracts us from them reality of our mortality.

Here Jesus directs our attention to a much greater security and comfort.

Our true home, our complete security has already been built for us by him in heaven.

Wilkie believed this, and he lived it too.

The hope that Wilkie lived with, that allowed him to live with joy and cheer even in hard time, even as he faced death, was the confidence he has that Jesus had already prepared a place for Him.

The home he and Ethel built was a refuge for many, a gathering place for anyone who desired to come, and there was always enough room.

How neat a picture they created of the heavenly home they both are now enjoying.

2) Jesus is there to meet us.

One of the things us preachers often do in funerals is focus all the attention on heaven being a reunion with all our loved ones.

Don’t get me wrong, I long for that great reunion, and am confident that Wilkie was welcomed into heaven by a crowd of people with Ethel in front and it was quite the celebration.

But the thing thank makes heaven such a glorious place is not mansions, streets of gold, or even all our loved ones being there, it is that Jesus is there.

Jesus tells his disciples, “Don’t let your heart be troubled friends, I am going to prepare a place for you and then I will come take you there myself.”

Wilkie loved Jesus, and I can’t help but think that the moment his eyes opened in heaven, all those there to welcome him were quick to guide him to the one he longed to see.

4 years ago, right here in this room, we listen, through tear-filled eyes, the song “I Can Only Imagine”

Surrounded by Your glory What will my heart feel? Will I dance for You Jesus Or in awe of You be still? Will I stand in Your presence Or to my knees, will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine I can only imagine

No longer is Wilkie only imagining, He has met the Savior that he loved so much, and he and Ethel, I trust, are singing songs of praise to him right now.

3) Jesus is the way.

I can’t help be read Thomas’s words here hasty and worried. “Jesus we don’t know where you are going, we don’t know the way? How will we ever get there?”

It is a troubling feeling to not know the way to where you are going. To be lost.

But there is such a confidence in knowing the way.

Jesus answers Thomas’s troubled heart with one of the most wellknown statements in all of the bible.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

You know the way already Thomas, because you know me. I am the way. I will be enough for you. You don’t need to look elsewhere; you don’t need to supplement me with anything else.

You’re disoriented, and I am the way. You’re confused, and I am the truth. You’re fearful, and I am the life.

Knowing me is enough, and will be enough, he says. Your search can end with me.

Wilkie wasn’t troubled because he knew the way.

And in his life, in his words, and in his witness, he has shown us, each of us, the way.

Invitation

Do you know the way?

Is your heart troubled today, weighed down by the worries and struggles of the world?

Bring your troubled heart to Jesus.

He has prepared a place for you.

He is there to bring you home.

He is the way, the truth, and the life.

In Him and Him alone will you find the comfort and security you desire, the same comfort and security we all witnessed in Wilkie.

Come to Jesus.

Song- Dancing With the Angels

Graveside

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 ESV

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

I think Paul wanted us to read these words more often than just at funerals, but I especially think he wanted us to read them on days like today.

The world fears a place like this, not because of the undead or paranormal activity, but because they fear death.

But this is not a place to be feared, it is a place that reminds us of what is to come.

“Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Death is not the end for those who have died in Christ.

The body we are laying in the ground today is only a shell of who Wilkie was in whole.

But one day the dead in Christ will rise.

One day this place wear we shed so many tears will be a place of rejoicing as all those who have died knowing Christ are reunited with their glorified bodies to live out their eternities in the glory of the new heavens and new earth.

So as we lay Wilkie to rest today let us grieve, but let us not grieve as others who do not have hope, “for we believe that Jesus died and rose again”

And we confess with Paul:

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 ESV

55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer

Graveside Rain Option

As we gather here around Wilkie’s final resting place, the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians is a wonderful reminder.

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 ESV

Because of Christ and Wilkie’s faith in Him, though he has left his earthly home, we can be confident and find great hope and peace in knowing that Christ has defeated death and Wilkie will one day rise again from this place.

Until then we will miss him and we will mourn, but we do not have to mourn without hope.

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”